by Kyle Johnson
When they reached Jeff Lawson’s status, Veronica paused. “His numbers did go up this week, quite significantly,” she said carefully. “However, I don’t recommend continuing last week’s pattern. It worked once, but I think ultimately it’ll be self-destructive.”
“I disagree,” Newsome shook his head. “We pushed him, and he responded. If we push him harder, he’ll respond even better. It’s all about tying him into the game.”
“While that would normally work, I suggest easing off the pressure, Mr. Newsome. Mr. Lawing quite nearly turned to the Dark, and as powerful as his character is, if it went to the Darkness, he would be extremely destabilizing.”
“Worst-case scenario, I’d take care of him myself,” David shrugged. “I don’t think it would come to that…”
“Excuse me, Mr. Newsome, but based on my projections, there’s a strong possibility that, with the added power of turning to the Darkness, even your character would have difficulty dealing with him. Mr. Newsome, he just took down Zoridos. By himself.”
David frowned. “That shouldn’t be possible,” he argued almost out of habit. Veronica wouldn’t have told him anything that wasn’t accurate, but that didn’t seem like something that could happen. “Zoridos is a scaled raid boss; he’s always 15 levels above the highest-level character in the area and has the power of the Tree-heart. It would take a full raid group to kill him…”
“No, Mr. Newsome. Not kill him. He destroyed him, permanently. He discovered Zoridos’ link to the Tree-heart, severed it, freed all the trapped souls within, and claimed the city for himself. Antas is a free realm, now.”
Newsome sat, quietly, thinking for a moment. Veronica was right; if the young man’s character was that powerful, letting him turn Dark would cause any number of problems. “How did it happen?” he finally asked, listening as Veronica gave him a more detailed explanation.
At the end, he leaned back and smiled. “I made a mistake, Veronica, and you were right. We pushed too hard, and pushing more will be counterproductive.”
“Thank you, Mr. Newsome,” the AI assistant smiled at him. “Might I suggest…”
He waved her to silence. “It wasn’t the pressure that drew him deeper into the game. That was my mistake. Don’t you see, Veronica? It was love. He loved that NPC, and that made him commit far more completely than all the setbacks and challenges did. We just need to give him someone else to love, is all.”
“I understand, Mr. Newsome, but again, I don’t recommend trying to recreate that scenario immediately. Mr. Lawing seems to be displaying real and genuine grief; our research indicates that humans find it difficult to love for some time after a loss such as this.”
“I suggest you do more research into the concept of rebounds,” David replied. “But I wasn’t talking about romantic love.” He glanced again at the picture on his desk. “Tell me, Veronica, does Mr. Lawing have any siblings?”
Aranos raced through the dreamscape, fuming as he traveled. His first visit of the night had been to Lorsan, which had been fine. Ghilanna had been true to her word and provided him with plenty of guards, and the number of members trickling into his House kept growing. Lorsan had been far more cautious about what Quests he accepted, apologetically refusing those he thought were beyond the House’s means to accomplish, and it seemed some of the pressure from other Houses had eased a bit as they’d realized that Aranos wouldn’t be taking the bait.
His next trip, though, had been to Mathias, though, to check on the Travelers, and that had gone less well.
“I am pleased to report that we have completed our Quest, my Lord,” the overly formal Warrior bowed as he spoke. “Thanks to the research of our Wizards, we discovered that the culprit was a beast called an apanog, something similar to the Wild Huntsman of Celtic legends.”
Aranos’ Beast Lore didn’t kick in, which meant the creature had to have been fairly rare. “How did you know that was it?”
“An apanog can control other creatures of the Darkness around it and make them behave like they’re a coordinated unit instead of a bunch of animals. There were other possibilities, but when one party got a glimpse of the creature, it was confirmed. Four arms, ram horns on the head, always wears a black hood and black leather that’s supposedly made from elf skin.” The Warrior shuddered.
Aranos frowned. “Wait, so that thing’s just been hanging out around the Stronghold?” he asked dubiously. “Why did we just start seeing signs of it now?”
“Oh, no,” Mathias explained. “Apparently, it had attacked the Stronghold some years ago, and Elder Golloron had to deal with it. As we found out a bit too late, if you kill the thing, it’s just banished for a year and will return, so the Elder captured it. It escaped somehow.” Mathias cleared his throat uncomfortably. “As I said, we didn’t realize the whole ‘killing it means it comes back in a year’ part before we’d, you know – killed it. It was mostly my fault; we’d discovered it has a weakness to light-enhanced weapons – did you know that you can do that? You can add light damage to a weapon – so we went after it. Took a few tries, but we managed to take it down.”
Aranos stared at the man, his anger rising, but he set it aside. He wasn’t mad at Mathias; the man had done a great job, so far as Aranos could tell. Once he verified the story with some of the other Travelers, he planned to offer the Warrior a place as an Elder of his House. Making the man think Aranos was pissed at him wouldn’t help that much.
“Well, great job!” the Sorcerer forced a smile. “So, did you all get accepted to your Houses?”
“For the most part, yes. There was one party that didn’t help as much – they just focused on hunting in the forests or completing House Quests – and they didn’t get an offer, but they knew that was coming, so they’re not upset. They’re really more in it for the money than for the reputation, anyway.”
Aranos had finished up his chat quickly and set off into the dreamscape. Golloron again. It was time to confront the Elder and let him know that his little game was up, that Aranos knew what was going on.
As his passage slowed, Aranos focused on the image of the perfidious Wizard. He expected it to take a long time to summon Golloron – after all, surely the Elder had protections against this sort of thing – but the silver-haired, white robed figure appeared almost instantly, which put Aranos even more on guard. If Golloron didn’t have strong protections against Dreamwalkers, maybe it was because he didn’t think he needed them…
“Lord Evenshade,” the Elder spoke, his faced creased with a smile. “Truly, an unexpected pleasure! I was alerted that you completed the first part of the Cleansing Quest; did you have a question about the next part?”
“I’m not here about the Quest, actually,” Aranos spoke, his voice cold and flat, drawing a narrowed gaze from the Elder. “I’m here because you accidentally left a scrap of memory in Rhys when you screwed with his mind.” The Sorcerer gestured, and his recollection of the vague image appeared in the dreamscape, shimmering before Golloron’s face.
“Ah, did I?” the Elder asked with a touch of seeming exasperation. “I have been a bit sloppy lately, it is true. If I had been more careful, that business with the Tree-heart might have turned out different.”
Noting Aranos’ look of surprise, the Elder laughed almost good-naturedly. “You expected me to deny it, Traveler? To protest and proclaim my innocence? I suppose I could do that, but what would be the point? I am certain you did not travel all this way simply over a blurry image. I observed your hunt for Keryth with great interest; you are more perceptive than others give you credit, and you have certainly put more things together than just my tampering with your Druid. Did he survive it, by the way?”
“He did,” Aranos said shortly. “Saphielle didn’t. I’ve healed most of the damage, by the way, and cut off your links to his mind.”
“I assume you will also be granting him additional protections against further intrusions, so I will write him off as a lost tool. I am sorry to hear about the Lieuten
ant, though. She was well respected, and her loss will be felt. Still, those who seek adventure often find death, as the old saying goes.”
Aranos’ fury raged, and the dreamscape darkened around him. The Elder merely glanced around unconcernedly. “You knew Lily was in the city, impersonating Geltheriel,” he growled. “You killed those elders, stole their knowledge, and set Keryth up to take the fall. You put that Corrupt Skill book for me to find. You gave Geltheriel the Cleansing Quest and then kept us at the Stronghold just long enough so that we’d meet Lily there and help her with her Evolution. You sent me to be enslaved by Zoridos. You set Rhys against us, hoping he’d betray us at the worst possible time. You released the apanog to delay us and make Geltheriel fail her Quest.”
“Yes, to all but the last,” Golloron laughed. “I never thought you would stay to puzzle out my little riddle; that was meant for the other Travelers to occupy themselves. How is Zoridos, by the way? Such a pathetic creature; so much power and so little skill in using it.”
“It’s dead,” Aranos said flatly. “Gone, forever. I freed the Tree-heart and the souls within and Redeemed the city. Antas is mine, now.”
At those words, Golloron’s pleasant expression vanished. “Take care, foolish Traveler,” he growled. “You play with powers that are greater than your ken. That city was given to the undead for a reason, just as my actions are taken for a reason that you would not understand. The peace we enjoy is not what it might seem to be.”
Aranos’ eyes widened as realization struck him. “You’re working for the Darkness!” he gasped. “You’ve been a traitor to the Light all along!”
“I work with the Darkness. There is a significant difference.” The Elder shook his head. “Think, Traveler. When the Feast came, creatures from the Nightmare Realm roamed freely on this world. Locked away from our gods, we had no forces sufficient to stop them. At best, we could slow their advance. And then, suddenly – they vanished. Have you not wondered at this?”
“You’re paying tribute,” Aranos said slowly. “Tribute to the Darkness. Saphielle said that the number of elves in the Stronghold dwindles every year. You’ve been sending them to be sacrificed!”
“In a manner of speaking, yes,” the elf nodded. “Do you not see, Traveler? We at the edges of the Claimed Lands make this sacrifice so that others may live. We have made peace with the Darkness, and we sacrifice lives to that peace. We send our forces out to be killed, arrange for men to die on the wall, weaken the Tree-hearts so that Blight can advance, but never too much.
“I do not serve the Darkness, for that is slavery disguised as power. Yet, neither do I serve the Light, for how can you serve something that will not serve you in turn? I serve my city and my nation, as do all the Elders of every city, the Lords of every human realm, the dwarven kings in their halls of stone. This is the peace we negotiated long ago, and it is why only weak creatures roam near our lands.
“The Blightlands are filled with beasts that would consider amaroks and ursusz to be less than fodder, Traveler. Perhaps you have seen this in your travels?” Aranos refused to answer, but the Elder continued. “Those creatures stay far from our cities and slaughter one another rather than crush our walls and ravage our lands, and they do so because of the peace we have arranged.
“This is why I was so thrilled when the Travelers began to arrive,” the old elf continued, gesturing a bit wildly as he spoke, his voice growing more frantic. “Surely, I thought, their deaths will satisfy the Dark as well as the deaths of elves, and the lives of Travelers are an endless resource. That is why I led you on the path to lost Haerobel, why I gave your Follower the Quest to go to Antas, why I released the apanog to slaughter the lesser Travelers, and why I tolerated that first Traveler’s presence despite her obvious insanity.
“And yet, you above all refuse to simply die for me!” The Elder was starting to rave now, and Aranos mentally prepared his Arcane Armor. “You destroyed Lythienne and freed Haerobel. You stopped Keryth and purified the Tree-heart in a way that even I cannot undo! Your minions slew the apanog I released rather than be slaughtered by it! Now, you have gone so far as to Redeem Antas, banishing the undead and freeing all those trapped souls!”
The Elder spun to face Aranos, and white fire streaked with black rose from the elf’s hands. “Do you not see? There will be a price to pay for what you have done, and we will be the ones to pay it! The assaults on our walls will increase, the deaths will grow, and that will be on your conscience, Traveler!”
“No,” Aranos replied calmly. “This is war, and in war, Warriors die. You’ve forgotten that, Golloron; you forgot that we’re supposed to be fighting to save these people, not just slowing down how quickly they die. Otherwise, you could never live with what you’re doing.”
“You preach to me, Sorcerer?” the elf shouted, his anger fully present, the flames writhing up his arms and into his flowing hair. “You know nothing of the sacrifices I have made, nothing of what I have done to protect myself and my city!”
“Everyone will know about them, soon,” Aranos murmured. “You know I won’t keep this secret.”
“None will believe you, fool! Tell who you wish; I have my fingers deep into the minds of all within the Stronghold. I can turn them to your side or against you as easily as a thought! Those with the power to stop this know of it; those who do not know will never listen!”
The fire swirled about Golloron faster now, brilliant white shot with black streaks of void magic. Of course, Golloron was a void mage; he was the void mage Aranos had been seeking and only thought he found. “I’ll convince them, Golloron. It’ll take time, but I’ll expose you.”
“And your Follower’s family will die that night,” Golloron snapped. “As will the healers of House Melarue. Mistress Dirue will succumb to the mental injuries done to her. And all will look as if your Travelers did the deed, all blame will fall on them. On you. None will believe you after that, Traveler.”
Fury raged through Aranos, a match for the flames Golloron had summoned, but he held it tightly within him. “You know I’ll stand against you, Golloron. You can cast me from the Stronghold, revoke my Title, but I’ll still fight you. And I’ll win. That’s what Travelers do.”
“Cast you out?” the Elder laughed. “Not at all! You are welcome within Eredain, so long as you avoid angering me unduly. I have no fear of your presence, no need to cast you out. Let me show you why, Sorcerer!”
The flames roared off Golloron and roiled around Aranos, licking and curling at his dream flesh, but the Sorcerer felt no heat. A thin barrier surrounded him, a place where no dream-stuff existed, and in that place, the Elder’s fire had no power. “I think that’s enough of that,” the arcane finally snapped, flexing his will. Instantly, the wave of fire winked out, snuffed as if it had never been.
“This is my dreamscape, Golloron,” the arcane said darkly, his anger finally rising in my voice. “I alone have power here.”
“So you may think, but there are powers deeper than you have delved,” the elf growled, suddenly glowing with a sickly, gray light that made the dreamscape shudder around them. The dreams flickered and faded nearest the pair, and Aranos grabbed the elf with his will, trying to suppress the rising flood of strange energy.
It was like trying to hold back the tide. The upswelling of energy was vast, beyond anything Aranos had touched, reminding him of the oceans of energy below his mana river or the fell power that Lily had gathered in her ritual. His will flexed uselessly, and in desperation, he grabbed every erg of power within his reach, dragging the dreamscape into himself and turning it into a blaze of chromatic fire.
Aranos unleashed his blast of spirit-infused power just as the gray light roared forth from Golloron’s hands. For a moment, the entire dreamscape exploded in a frenzy of energies that shredded nearby dreams and ripped at the very fabric of the realm. When the maelstrom settled, the dreamscape was empty. Both of the men had vanished.
Morx stepped out from behind a shredded vision o
f a dream and observed the blasted dreamscape curiously.
“Now that – was interesting.”
The End
of Book 3.
Look for Book 4 of Singularity Online in Spring 2021!
If you enjoyed this book, please review it! Reviews are the lifeblood of an independent author, and there’s no better way to show your support.
If you want to reach out to me, you can connect to me on Facebook. I also have a blog about my current and upcoming books. Finally, you can also check out my Patreon page!
To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Books group!
If you love Gamelit and want to read more series like this, or to hear about the newest releases and best series, check out the GameLit Society!
Aranos’ Character Sheet
After the conquest of Antas
Author’s Note: By fan requests, I’ve expanded this listing to include things like Aranos’ casting bonuses. I considered adding skill rank effects and ability descriptions, but that felt too much like padding a book that’s already really long!
Aranos, Lord Evenshade, Heart-Bonded of Antas
Age: 26
Race: High Arcane
Advanced Class: Sorcerer AscendantXP: 168,003/171,000
Level: 9
Class: SorcererXP: 106,502/120,000
Level: 15
Profession: ScholarXP: 280/500
Abilities:
Str: 54 (94) Dex: 57 (97) Agil: 58 (98) End: 54 (94)
Int: 146 (187) Wis: 155 (196)Per: 59 (100) Cha: 156 (197)
LP: 2,766 /2,766Regen: 202.4/s
SP: 31,940/31,940Regen: 202.4/s, 288.1/s when meditating
Stamina: N/A
Soul Points: 30